Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Waking up you look at the ceiling only to see a massive hole. That's odd your room didn't have a hole in it. Wait you remember now your not in your room. Sitting up you look around only too see your in a wide room surrounded by flowers. But how did you get here? It's a bit fuzzy but you start to piece things together. Lucky you had your helmet on or else you might be seriously injured.

Flashback

You had just had the worst baseball game of your life. First you immediately got struck out, then you managed to not fail not one but 2 catches, and finally it started raining on your way back to the orphanage. luckily you could just hang with your big bro and he would usually make it all better.

Walking inside you decide to skip your room and walk straight to the one your brother was in. Walking over to his bed you don't see your brother anywhere, you only see a note lying on his bed.

Picking up and inspecting the note you are horrified at what you were reading.

For anyone reading this I've gone to mt ebbot to enact justice for all the missing kids.

Love clover 🍀

Ps. Courage if your reading this, I insist that you don't follow me, I don't want you getting hurt.

panicking you start to hyperventilate. You have no idea what to do. Do you follow him, or do you do as the note says and let him explore alone? You can't make up your mind. You decide your gonna pack and see what you feel after your done.

After a couple of minutes your done packing. Staring at you backpack full of snacks and clothes (and your favorite game), you decide that your gonna do it, your gonna go save your brother. Before your fully out of the orphanage you decide to turn back to grab your trusty metal bat and baseball helmet. You'd never leave home without them.

After a couple hours of walking you finally see your destination, mt ebbot. As you stare up and the huge mountain you pause for a moment, this mountain was huge! Did your brother really think it was a good idea to jump into that deathtrap?! Steeling yourself for a moment, you look back ahead and keep walking, you've already come this far, your not gonna let down the only family you have left.

Walking forward you start to feel a pit in your stomach, a feeling you know all to well, Fear. You don't know why you've always been so scared, all you know is it's been like this since your were born. You'd get scared over something small and clover would come running in to save the day. That's why you need to save him, to repay him for all the times he's saved you.

Steeling your nerves you continue up the mountain. Hoping that you would be able to just find your brother and just be able to go home. You eventually reach a small cave in the mountain, hoping your brother might just be resting inside. Walking forward you notice something that makes your heart stop for a moment, boot tracks, you know they have to be your brother's.

Walking forward you continue deeper into the cave, hoping to just find your brother uninjured and just asleep. Following the trail you end up noticing where it ends. A giant hole in the floor. Looking around desperately you hope to find your brother nearby the hole just resting. After a long time of looking and panicking, you finally come to the conclusion that your brother had jumped in.

Walking towards the hole you just stare at it for what felt like hours. You had no idea what to do, do you jump in to go heroically go save your brother, or do you do the logical thing and go get the police?
.
.
.
No getting the cops involved wouldn't help, it's not like they would care if an orphan boy just mysteriously went messing without a trace. They wouldn't care, no one would, that's why you had to find your brother, your all each other had.

Finally deciding that this really is the only choice you start to put on your base ball helmet, hoping it would keep you safe. Walking closer to the hole, you shudder seeing as how you can't seem to see the bottom. Knowing that it's now or never you take a step forward and plunge into the abyss that had taken away your brother.

Flashback over

Getting up and walking further into the ruins you find yourself face to face with a……frog? Before suddenly you have to dodge backwards to avoid an attack the frog threw. but before you could retaliate a large women with goat like features glared at the frog and caused it to run away. Glancing back up at the women she proceeded to look down at you before speaking.
"My child are you hurt"? She said while examining you. "W-who a-are you"? You said trembling with fear. Suddenly she reached a hand out to you. "It's ok my child, I am Toriel guardian of the ruins".

Getting up and taking her hand you let her guide you through the ruins. You begin to zone out as you start to think, this is really a monster huh. You are currently holding hands with a monster and not freaking out? How are you not freaking out? Maybe it's cause she reminded you of momma. Maybe clover felt the same way? Maybe he's still right here hanging out with Toriel!

Stopping dead in your tracks, you look up at Toriel and ask the question that's been bugging you the whole time.

"Um miss Toriel I have a question"?

"Yes my child"?

"Did my um- did my brother come through hear"

Suddenly Toriel turned around and stared at you with shock. "That was your brother"? Filled with hope that he might still be here you ask your next question. "Uh yeah do you know where he is? I miss him".

Suddenly you both stop at what appears to be a hole in the floor under 2 switches. "Well my child unfortunately I do not he had fallen through this whole only a couple of hours ago". Looking at the hole you know what you had to do, you've come this far and you've already let him down before. "Ms Toriel"? "Yes my child" she said whilst turning to you.

"Thanks for everything". You said while grabbing you bag straps and jumping down into the hole

"My child"!

Thud

Ugh, well that was painful, you thought as you look around, before noticing something lying on the floor. The missing kids poster, that must means he's been through here! And if you don't hurry up you both might be added to it, you thought as you continue deeper into the ruins.

Walking into a room you jump as you hear the last thing anyone would want to hear in abandoned ruins.

"Howdy"! The voice said as you turn to look at it. "I'm flowey, flowey the flower"! The small monster said with a mischievous grin. "Uh that's cool my name's courage" you said trying not to show how uncomfortable you are. "Wow such a fitting name especially since you have an orange soul"! "What does that mean"? You said confused. "Oh silly it means that you have the soul of bravery, it means your vary being is based on courageousness"! Hah yeah right you thought, no way am I the peak of bravery.

"Well that's cool uh…flowery was it, do you know where my bro is "? Holding back the urge to kill you and reset, flowey spoke again. "Oh you mean clover? their already pretty deep in the underground it's going to be quiet a trek, but I'm sure you can do it because you have me on your side, thanks to me I can reset if you ever die and I could bring you back"!

Deciding that you didn't want to know why he had to bring that up, you continue. "Uh cool can you just tell me where he is"? "Oh no that'd be too easy, but don't worry I'll make sure you don't die……much. Welp I best be off remember I believe in you.

Well that was weird. And now your panicking even more than before! What does he mean by much, are you going to die?! well there's only way way to find him and that's forward.

After walking for what felt like forever you finally make it to what seemed like someones house. Or as you should say what USED to be someones house. Everything seemed to have been moved out. Continuing forward you found what appeared to be a door with some planks sitting next to it. Walking through it your prepared to do what ever it takes to find your dear bro.

Chapter Text

Feeling a cold rush flow through your body your body you look around to see where you are. A vast field of nothing but snow and trees lies infront of you. The cold rushing through your body makes you start to regret your decision a bit. But no you cant give up yet you have a brother to save.

Walking forward you start to reflect on your journey so far. What are you supposed to do the next time you encounter a monster? Sure Toriel and flowey were nice but what if the next monster isn't so nice? Sure you have a bat to defend yourself, but you could never bring yourself to hurt another person.

Sighing with your head down you start to think that maybe you'll never find your brother. Maybe all your doing is proving to everyone that your just the failure you thought you were.

Walking forward deep in thought you fail to notice the monster right in front of you. Bumping into said monster you stumble back before looking up to see a large man with purple skin and two curved horns.

"Oh hello are you lost"? The purple man said calmly. You on the other hand were not so calm, seeing as how this is the first possible hostile entity. You start to slowly back away hoping he might not attack you. Well you were before to tripped and landed flat on your back.

"Oh are you all right"? The vampire man said as he extended a hand towards you. You stare at the hand of the strange man wondering if you should accept his offer or not.

Hesitantly taking his hand you feel a little reassured after he pulls you too your feet. You stumble backwards a bit before staring at the strange man, not saying a word. The man gives you a curious look, before realizing the reason for you behavior. "Oh your…afraid, I'm sorry about that". Realizing your mistake you quickly try to apologize, but before you could the man Interrupted you. "Oh where are my manners my names dalv what's yours". "Oh it's uh courage" you said as you looked away."I actually used to be quite scared like you until clover helped me move on". Dalv said as he looked a little embarrassed.

Briefly going into a state of shock, you look at the man infront of you. Did he really know your brother? Maybe he could help you find him. Breaking out of your dazed state you ask the question you've had in your mind. "Wait you know my brother, can you help me find him"?

Looking at you the strange man looks a little uncomfortable. "Uh well I can tell you where he is unfortunately I cannot join you for……reasons".

Deciding not to question why he can't come you quickly ask. "That's fine can you just tell me where he is, and maybe how to get to him"? The man looks at you for a moment before saying. "Oh I'm pretty sure by now he's probably made it to the wild east". "The wild east"? You ask. The man thinks for a moment before exclaiming. "Oh um well you could've asked martlet to lend you her boat but I think it's broken". You stare in disbelief, if a local doesn't even know how to get there what chance do you have? Maybe you should've just stayed home like your brother said.

The vampire man thinks for a moment before saying. "Oh you could also ship yourself through the ugps to get there". You turn to look at him confused. "What's the ugps"? "Oh it's the underground postal service, but now they've moved onto becoming a taxi service as well".

Really a taxi service? You thought. Surely this can't get any weirder. "Huh ok then w-well thanks for the advice".

As you start to walk away dalv pipes up one more time. " Oh by the way, the mail carrier tends to rhyme….a lot, so watch out for that". Rhyming, that's a new one. You thought the warning would be of a threat not some weird linguist.

"Uh ok I'll watch out for that, thanks again for everything dalv"! You said as you start to run down the trail hoping to warm up by keeping a good speed.

Sprinting further down the road you mentally berate yourself for not knowing how to contact the ugps. You ended up running for so long you ended up winded down the middle of a path. Feeling the cold wind in your lungs as your muscles burn causes you to forcefully stop in your tracks.

Looking up you see a large building with a sign out front reading "honey dew resort". Walking up to the front, you hesitate, what if the monsters inside try to attack you? Shaking off the feeling you walk forwards, cowardice is the reason you lost track of your brother In the first place.

Walking inside you look around……kinda empty huh. There's only like 1 or 2 costumer's. Walking up the counter you realize you can't even reach the top. Jumping up and down you try and get the attention of the worker. Finally snagging their attention your dragged out of your struggle by them grabbing your arms and hoisting you onto a stool. Shocked by the sudden movement you fail to realize the shop keeper was looking at you, worried.

"Oh are you ok I just wanted to help you up" the woman said as she looked a little worried

"It's fine I'm j-just a little dizzy". You said trying to adjust yourself on the seat.

"S-sorry I'm still a little new to this whole being a shop keep thing, was that to forward?"

"No it's fine I couldn't get up anyways"

"Oh thank angel I was worried I hurt you"

"It's fine like I said, just a little dizzy"

"Ok well c-can I get you anything?"

"Uh I don't have any money on me"

"Oh that's a shame, I'd help you out but if I gave away free stuff my dad would get mad at me."

"Ok uh I just h-have one question"

"Ok shoot"

"So how can I contact the um Postal service?"

The lady looked a bit confused before realizing and continuing. "Oh that's easy just go up to one of their signs and ring the bell."

"Ok second question where can I find a sign?"

"Oh just outside straight from the door. Can't miss it"

As you hop off the stool you turn back towards the shop keep and give your parting words. "Thanks I probably would've missed it, have a nice day"

As you start to walk towards to front door you see a group of three monsters sitting in front of it and chatting. Deciding to try and avoid any unnecessary conflict you walk out the back door into the snow.

Walking out the door you feel the familiar harsh winds of snowdin. Walking further you accidentally stumble into the woods and end up in front of a……hot tub? Walking forward you notice two things. The hot tub is filled with multiple tiny frogs like the one that first attacked you. The second thing you find is a completely gold cup of coffee. Deciding to take the coffee and go, you grab the cup and put it in your bag.

You got the golden coffee

Walking out of the woods, you walk back around the building to the front searching for the aforementioned sign. After a couple minutes of cluelessness, you finally find the sign sitting just a couple hundred feet down the path that you came.

How did you miss this?

Walking upto the sign you stare at it for a few moments before shaking away any doubts in your brain. You have to be brave, for clover.

Ringing the bell you wait a few moments, before you start to think. Will this actually do anything or were you just pranked? Hearing something flap down from the sky, you look up to see a.......pink whale with wings?

"Hi my name's mail whale and I'm with the ugps how may I be of service?"

Looking confused you ask a question. "Wait my friend said that you guys usually rhyme?"

"Oh we do I'm just on my lunch break"

"Wait so you don't like rhyming?"

"No it's just company policy, so what do you need?"

"Uh well I heard you were also a taxi service?"

"You betcha! I'll get you anywhere in a jiffy but can you hurry up my breaks almost over"

"Oh sure uh can you get me to the wild east please?"

"Ok can do just hop in the basket and we'll be on our way"

As you attempt to crawl into the basket you hear a small alarm go off as you finally make it inside.

"Welp that's my que guess I have to do what all ugps members do!"

Ok that's either going to be funny or it's going to be excruciatingly annoying, but you can't tell yet.

"Welp time to go to a place that's warm I hope when we get their you don't get harmed!"

Ok that's concerning. What does he mean don't get harmed! Failing to even question the meaning behind his words you can only utter one thing.

"Uh warm and harm don't rhyme."

"Up up up they rhyme shut up."

Deciding not to question it further you sink into the basket and wait. After around 5 or so minutes you decide to ask another question " hey not to be rude but how long is this going to take?"

Without looking at you the pink whale responds. "Oh it should only be another 10 minutes"

"You stopped rhyming again."

"I'm not gonna rhyme when people aren't watching, and I can tell you really don't like it."

"…Thanks" you say as you take your bag off of your back and pull out your gameboy advance. It had been a gift from clover on your birthday and now you won't go anywhere without it. After a bit of pokemon you hear the whale start to speak again.

"Hey so I Don't have the time to drop you off in town so I'm gonna have to drop you off outside ok?" The whale said as they look down at you.

"That's fine thanks for taking me this far." You say as you climb out of their basket and watch as they fly away.

Stretching for a moment you start to look at the town your brother was supposedly in you start to notice a few things. There was a large sign outside of the town reading……The wild east. You really shoulda seen that coming.

As you start to walk forward you start to finally feel hope that maybe you could find your brother and give him the biggest hug of your life.

Walking into the town you start to look at the building and surroundings. They have buildings like a hospital and a saloon….kinda reminds you of all the western movies clover watched.

Walking inside the saloon you look around before you decide to walk up to the bar. Climbing up onto a stool was difficult but helpful in talking to the bartender. Staring at the bartender you notice one striking fact that fills you with dread. snakes. You had always hated snakes since they always tried to attack you, but these snakes actually seem kinda chill.

"I see you've noticed my little friends hear."

"Oh sorry for staring I just don't have a good track record with snakes"

"It's fine and don't worry they won't bite ya. Anyways is there anything I could get ya?"

"So it might be a weird question but have you seen another human around hear?"

"Oh you mean clover? Yeah he was hear just a bit ago."

"Do you have any idea where he is now"

"Unfortunately I do not but I know some people who might."

"Who?"

"The feisty five or I guess I should say the feisty four since the sheriff is out."

"O…k then, do you know where they are?"

"Yeah they should be in their house, it's on the edge of town near the train tracks can't miss it."

"Thanks…uh"

"Dina, what's yours"

"Oh my names courage *hops off of the stool onto the floor* well, see you around Ms Dina"

As you walk away you start to think, are you ever going to find your brother? I mean all you've done so far is go from person to person on some wild goose chase. What if you run into one of your brothers enemies? The thought alone makes you tremble in your shoes.

Walking forward you end up in front of a semi large yellow house with a lot of talking coming from the inside. Knocking on the door your heart stops for a moment when all goes quiet and you hear some shuffling to the door. The door opens up to reveal a large pink man in a suit and a tiny hat. The size of the man alone makes you want to run away with fear.

"So what do you want" the large man says with a gruff voice

"U-uh i-i was-s looking f-for my b-brother clover." You say shaking like a leaf.

"Wait YOUR clovers brother?" The large man says.

"Y-yeah?"

The large mans stands there for a moment before letting out a laugh. "HAH could a fooled me you two look nothing a like but he was always talking about you.

The large man starts to speak again. "Y'know despite clover always talking about you I don't think he's ever said your name?"

"Oh sorry my names courage, ironic huh?" You say with a grimace.

"Whys that kid?"

"Well I was always the coward out of the two of us apparently I even have the soul of bravery or something

"Huh well that's cool anyways my name's Ed one of the feisty five!"

"That's cool, anyways do you know where clover is I've been trying to follow him this whole time but it's all felt like some wild goose chase!" You say while exasperated from all the running around.

"Well that's the bad news, kid your brother might be in danger right now."

"………WHAT!" you say failing to hide the fear In your voice.

"Whoa whoa calm down kid, don't worry North Star is ensuring his safety right now as we speak."

Reaching up and grabbing onto eds arm you look him right in the eyes before saying. "Ed, buddy, pal THAT DOES NOT HELP. WHERE IS HE."

Ed looks back at you before saying. "Ok, ok, jeez you don't have to yell. Last time I saw him he was headed through the steamworks to get to Hotland then new home."

Grabbing his arm and shaking it again you blurt out your next question.

"Where is the steamworks?!"

"Kid calm down, it's ok your brothers tough he'll be fine"

"Please, where is the steamworks?"

"*Sigh* it's on the east side of town then up past the farm"

"Thanks Ed I'll be back!" You say as you give ed a quick hug before running away and leaving a trail of…lightning?

Chapter Text

Sprinting down the hot desert road, you start to feel tired from all of the running. But you know in he end it'll all be worth. It when you finally reunite with your brother. Even if you can't get home from the underground, as long as you have your bro you'll be happy.

Running further your halted by a giant iron door, similar to a vault. Walking up to it you see a sign near it reading "steamworks". Walking up to the door you realize it's shut tight and needs a code to open.

Before you can even think about your next course of action, a voice pops up next to you.

"Howdy!"

Spinning around you look down to see the flower you met in the ruins.

"Hi uh...flowery, was it?"

Holding back the urge to kill you flowey spoke up again. "No, it's flowey, anyways what are you doing here?"

"Looking for my brother, Ed said he had come through here to get a place called Hotland."

"Oh yeah you were looking for clover weren't you." He said with a sly smile. "Well lucky for you your good pal flowey will help you out!"

"What do you mean?"

"Well you need a code to get in right?"

"I think so, why?"

"Well it just so happens that I have said code, all I need from you is a favor."

"What is it?"

"Well the code is 7771 and as for the favor, when you find clover tell him hi from flowey!"

"Ok thank you flowey, your a good friend."

"I know I am, oh and before I go I have not more tip! The fastest way through the steamworks is a laundry chute on the left path inside! Well bye friend, I'll talk to you later!"

And just like that he was gone. Entering the code into the panel near the door, your startled by the loud nose the door made as it opened. staring into the dark reception area, you quickly brush off your fears and continue forward into the darkness.

Flowey pov

It's kinda funny how easy it is to manipulate this kid! It's even easier than clover. And now my plan is all falling together. As soon as this kid finds his brother without his soul, he'll probably snap and start attacking monsters. Then all I need to do is give him a little push and he'll go distract the king for me. It's too bad I can't keep clover as a pawn, but he wouldn't attack monsters anyway so he's useless. But with this kid, he's a hair length away from snapping! Oh this is going to be so much fun!

Courage pov

WOW it is dark in here. Walking through the lobby you start to feel an odd sense of dread. Like your walking into a bad decision. Putting your fears behind you, you press forward to find your brother. As you continue to walk through the abandoned facility you start to look back on your life. You start to think back to the last time you spent with clover.

Flashback

You had just had an awful day, you had just had enough of everything and to top things off you were getting picked on for being a coward. But who could blame you the world was so scary sometimes.

Walking into the orphanage you decide to just throw your backpack onto the stairs and skip your room, opting to walk straight into clovers. Walking inside you see your brother sitting on his bed polishing his toy gun.

"Hey clover?"

"....yeah?"

"Can I have a hug? I had a bad day." You say while looking away embarrassed.

Without a word clover drops his gun and opens his arms with a small smile. Running towards him you accept the hug and let yourself be comforted in his embrace.

You missed him

Flashback over

After you were finished reminiscing, you look up to see where you were. You were what seemed to be a lobby like area with a path on the left, right, and forward. Deciding to go left like flowey said you found....... A dead and a water wheel. Ok maybe flowey meant a different left path.

Walking back out into the main room you decide to take the path forwards. It appears it was once locked by a puzzle but said puzzle was already complete. It was probably clovers doing, he always was good at puzzles.

Walking through the doorway you end up at a split cross road. Deciding to follow flowers instructions you turn left and walk into a laundry room. Well it makes sense, since flowey told you the way through was a laundry chute.

Walking towards said laundry chute, your disgusted at the thought of climbing through this thing. It was filthy! It was filled with cobwebs and dust. Just thinking of crawling through here terrified you, as you thought of all the weird diseases you might catch. No, you had to put all of that behind you, you were looking for your brother and there's not a thing that would stop you!

Ok ghost maybe, but other than that one thing nothing will stop you!

Ok maybe also turtles, but other than those 2 things nothing will stop you!

Slowly crawling inside you start to crawl through the chute. Crawling forward you are starting to hate how you have to traverse through this place. Couldn't clover just hang out somewhere for 5 minutes?

Crawling some more, you see a light at the end of the tunnel. Bad as that may sound. You speed up hoping to reach it sooner.

Crawling out, your instantly hit with a heat greater than the dunes. Guess this is why they call it Hotland. Walking a bit forward, you start to get a bit light headed from the heat and the fact you haven't drunk anything in a while. Stumbling forward you keep trucking your way through the heat before winding up infront of some apartment buildings.

Walking inside the buildings your greeted with the nice feeling of air conditioning. Walking forward into the lobby you decide to ask the people inside if they've seen your brother. Walking around and asking everyone, no one knows what your talking about, except for one man with a cursor for a head, who tells you that your brother got on the elevator for new home.

Walking towards said elevator you click the button and wait.
And wait
And wait
And wait

Why is this thing taking so long? Finally the doors open and your let inside. Seeing there are only 2 buttons you click the one leading to new home. As the elevator starts to move, you start to ponder why humans went to war with these guys. You were a defenseless human and yet, not a single monster (besides the frog) has attacked you so far. Then you start to wonder if it was the same for clover. Did he have to fight anyone? Probably he did like to pick a fight sometimes.

As the elevator doors open up and you walk out, your hit with a feeling of uneasiness. You couldn't tell if it was the lack of color or the complete silence, but something about this place made you want to find your brother as soon as possible to leave.

Clover pov

You had finally won. After dozens of resets you had finally beaten the traitorous kitsune. Staring down at the weeping widow, your filled with anger. This woman got you to trust her before trying to rip your soul out of your body.

"I don't think I can bear this weight any longer"

Looking down at ceroba you start to feel pity for the fox woman. If something had happened to your brother, the only family you had left, you probably take some drastic measures as well.

"Do what needs to be done." The fox woman said, voice full of despair.

Looking down at the woman, you slowly start to raise your gun, determined to have justice for the attempted murder.

But before you could, you had a thought, is this what your brother would've wanted. To kill a person in obvious need of help. No, if your brother were here he would have tried his best to console her even if he was hurt.

Lowering the gun you look into the eyes of the fox and utter the only words you can think of.

"No…I won't do it."

Looking surprised the fox speaks up once again.

"Why are you like this. Always taking the high road. aren't you angry? Aren't you just? Pull the trigger already!

Looking back down at the gun in your hand, you slowly put it in it's holster before pulling out photo of your brother you always have on you.

"I…I may not have any idea what your going through, but I might have an idea."

Hearing you speak the fox woman looks up to meet your gaze.

"What?"

"I…have a brother and if something happened to him I… I might have done the same."

Looking surprised ceroba once again ask a question.

"Do you…hate me?"

Looking down you stare at the floor for a moment before continuing.

"What you did, did hurt me. But I can understand the feeling of loss and what it could do to you."

"Ceroba…"

Gazing up you both look over to your right to see starlo starting to wake up

"You… beat me up pretty b-badly, huh?

"S-star I…"

"Don't sweat it too much. I reckon I deserved it for the wild east fiasco."

"Heck of a hit though. I didn't know you had that in you." Starlo continued

"I'm…I'm so sorry"

Hearing a noise to your left you look over to see martlet starting to wake up.

"Wh…where am I……?

Realizing where she was, she quickly got up before turning to clover.

"Clover! We gotta get out of here!"

But before this can be taken any further, ceroba spoke up once again.

"No, it's finished, clover……clover won."

Suddenly starlo spoke up with surprise.

"Wait y'all had a fight? And the deputy won?"

After a moment of silence, ceroba spoke up.

"I….I don't know what to do. Apologize, make excuses, nothing would really change reality. I've dug a hole far too deep to climb out of. And for nothing…"

Attempting to cheer her up Starlo spoke once more

"Hey…where was I a few hours ago? In this same situation. My judgement was clouded and I screwed up. But you forgave me. And the other four did as well. we've both made poor choices, no sugar-coating that… but there is hope. At least… I believe there is."

Suddenly martlet spoke up too.

"I… can't begin to grasp what you've gone through…but this was an absolutely horrible way of dealing with it."

Martlet continued.

"You can't change what has happened, you're right. But you can control how you live from now on."

Hearing this ceroba spoke up once again.

"But… chujin. His legacy. His wish. It will never be fulfilled."

"Chujin might not have been the perfect monster I thought he was…"

Martlet replied before continuing.

"But even his darkest secrets came from a caring place. And that right there…is his legacy.

Starlo speaks once again.

"Martlets right. He made life down here bearable for so many. And for that, he has my respect.

Ceroba starts to speak once again.

"I……never thought about it like that. What the hell was I thinking! I was so tunnel-visioned. So lost…"

Starlo then proceeded to walk up to ceroba and put a hand on her shoulder.

"We can work through this. We're here for you."

Martlet then speaks up.

"Now, you should take some time to heal and recoup. But kanako's being wellbeing is still a valid concern."

Martlet said before adding on

"I have connections to the royal scientist so… I'll begin my an investigation. Try my best to help."

Ceroba speaks once again

"I don't know what to say…thank you, martlet."

She said as she stood up with the help of Starlo, before continuing.

"Clover. I owe an apology to you, most of all. Our time in the steamworks and what I said… it wasn't fake. It did allow me to briefly forget my troubles and have fun. But my reasoning for being there…"

You realize what you have to do as you walk up to ceroba.

"I can't begin to-."

But before she could continue, you wrap her in a tight hug that you would usually use on your brother. Ceroba looks shocked for a moment before hugging you back.

After that brief moment of affection, you walk backwards to the center of the group before martlet speaks up.

"I…can't believe it's come to this but… clover, I think your journey is at its end. Asgore and the barrier awaits us."

As soon she finishes talking Starlo speaks up.

"No! Already???

"As sad as it is, clover needs to go home."

While they were talking ceroba piped up and interrupted them both.

"That won't work."

"WHAT?"

And with that the group started trying to brainstorm how to keep you safe. But as that was happening you start to think. Is it worth it? You friends would be in constant danger because of you. Deciding what has to be done you start to focus power into your chest till your soul starts to glow.

"CLOVER, what are you doing?!"

Cutting back to reality you realize that you were standing in front of your friends with your soul infront of you.

"Clover what's going on? Your scaring us here. Martlet said.

"It's time" you utter knowing what you had to do.

"Wh- what does that mean". Martlet stutters afraid of what you were going to do.

"It's time to go" you say as you prepare for the inevitable.

"No no no no- we'll think of a plan. We have options." Martlet said trying to dissuade you.

"Y-yeah, don't do something you'll regret." Starlo said also trying to convince you. "If it's snowdin you don't like, you can live with me."

"Please you got to listen to us clover, you deserve better."

A moment of silence passes before ceroba speaks up."you're serious."

A moment of silence passes before
You slowly nod your head.

And with that the story of clover ended, he said goodbye to his friends and gave them his most sentimental items like his gun and his hat. And as he stood there feeling an odd sense of dread he heard ceroba speak to him for the last time.

"Do you…...want me to stay?

"No I'll be fine" you say. Sparing her the view of your final moments. But as you think some more you remember one key detail that had slipped your mind. Your Brother. Crap you had totally forgotten, now who's gonna take care of him? You thought before looking up at the woman still standing in front of you.

"…Ceroba?"

Ceroba snaps out of her daze before looking at you. "Yes clover?"

"I have one more request…if it's not to much to ask"

"What is it clover?"

"If my brother somehow finds himself in the underground, will you…take care of him for me. I was the only family that he had." You said as you handed the photo of your brother to ceroba.

Staring at the photo, ceroba thinks for a moment before answering.
"……I'll watch out for him clover."

"Thanks ceroba." You said as you heard ceroba walk away with your soul. Lying down you start to drift off until you hear another pair of footsteps waking up the steps…

Courage pov

Walking deeper in the silence only got more prevalent, causing you to start to worry. Walking further, you realize something. How are you gonna find clover if this place is built like a maze! Ok it's fine, maybe you just need to find some high ground? That's what people usually do when they're lost. But how are you gonna find high ground in the middle of a city?

No pov

As courage continued through the city he spots a staircase leading up to a large platform. Walking up said platform, courage looks back and forth for a moment before spotting something that made their heart jump. Clover, just lying there against the edge of the platform. Dropping his baseball bat and Running up to him, courage gently shakes clover as he starts to cry.

"Oh my God clover I'm so glad I found you. This whole place has been so terrifying and I just wanted to be with my bro again."

"...Courage?"

"Yeah bro?"

"......I'm sorry"

"W-what?"

"I'm not gonna make it"

Tears welling up in his eyes courage can only barely croak his next question. "Why?"

"I gave up my soul, courage."

"W-what would you do that you have so much to live for!"

"I did it to free the monsters"

"What, why would you do that?"

"Because I wanted to bring justice....... It's the least I could do after what us humans have done."

"No no no no clover those humans had nothing to do with you! You don't have to do this!"

"It's too late their already bringing my soul... to the king"

Lowering his head down in shame courage hears clover speak once again.

"Hey little bro I want you to have something."

Looking up courage sees clover with his hand out holding…his signature yellow and blue bandana.

"B-but bro this is the bandana that dad gave you!"

"Exactly, that's why I wanted you to have it, y'know to remind you of family."

"*Sniffle* thanks bro."

With a shaky hand you remove your baseball helmet and tie the bandana around your neck.

"You…look great…little bro."

Courage could tell he was getting worse by the second. Every breath he took was raspy and he was struggling to speak.

"So theirs nothing I can do?"

"You can do one thing."

Jumping at the chance to save his brother, courage eagerly ask.

"What is it? Id do anything."

"Bring justice to the monsters... and save kanako."

"What, bro your not making any sense, who's that?"

Shaking him some more courage desperately tries to keep him awake.

"C'mon bro you can't die on me your all I have left!"

"....I'm glad that my final moments were with you......little bro"

And with that his breathing ceased and you knew, as much as courage dreaded it, that his bro was no more.

"No...no no no no no! Clover!"

Courage desperately yelled trying to wake his brother up. But he was gone, courage's only family left was gone.

Courage pov

No, this can't be right. Clover was....gone? No this can't be happening! You had come down here to save your brother. And you failed. You failed like you always had. And now you were alone, a failure that couldn't even save his brother because of his childish fears.

Slamming your fist on the floor, you start to cry. Not a normal cry, but one of pure anguish. You had only ever cried like this once, when your parents died. Now here you were again, crying over the loss of your family.….God you really were pathetic. Even if you could've done nothing to save your parents, you could've saved clover. If you had just been faster, you could've convinced him not to do it. But now your here alone, just what a failure like you deserves.

As you cry you fail to notice an important detail. It was raining, how it was raining you had no idea. There appeared to be a cloud forming above you. A dark cloud pouring with rain and crackling with lightning. Maybe this was punishment for failing to save your brother.

As you sat there and weeped over the loss of your brother, you feel a hand on your shoulder as you hear a voice speak up behind you.

"Hey, kid are you okay?"

No pov

The walk to the castle had been quiet and awkward. Walking to sacrifice the soul of a dear friend will do that to you. As the three walk back towards new home, Starlo is the first to speak his mind.

"Hey ceroba, are you ok?"

"…Yeah."

After that is was silence again with ceroba taking the lead once more.
After another minute of walking, the three monsters hear a strange noise. It was crying. And not just that the crying was coming from the same balcony where ceroba and clover fought.

"What is that?" Martlet asked curious about the noise.

"Sounds like crying." Starlo said whilst turning to her.

Before either monster could continue, ceroba quickly walked up the steps, towards said balcony.

Ceroba pov

Walking up the steps, the kitsune monster had to make sure of what was Happening. She had made a promise to clover and she intended to keep it.

Reaching the top of the steps, ceroba looked to where she saw clover last. Only to see a small human kneeling over clovers body, weeping. Walking up and putting a hand on the small childs shoulder, ceroba looks down to them before asking. "Hey, kid are you okay?"

No pov

Feeling horrible after witnessing his brother die infront of him, courage is startled by someone putting there hand on his shoulder. Stumbling backwards while trying to grab his bat and helmet to arm himself, courage quickly utters a threat to try and dissuade his possible attacker.

"B-back off, I don't want to fight right now." Courage says breathing heavily, trying to keep his cool.

"I don't want to fight either I simply want to know if your ok." The large fox woman replies.

Trying to think of a response, courage stands silent for a moment, before suddenly he was interrupted by the sound of more footsteps charging up the stairs.

"Hey, ceroba, are you alright you just went charging up the stairs without saying…a……word." The cowboy looking monster said as he slowly noticed the second human having a standoff with his friend.

Suddenly the blue bird monster spoke up. " Wait are you a-"

"Human." Courage said cutting her off. Continuing, courage start to assume the worst, that these monsters were here to attack him. Quickly cutting them off before they can say anything courage speaks up again.

"I know why your here. Your here for me aren't you? The failure of a brother."

Speaking up you here the blue bird monster say. "Wh-what we're not here for that!"

Thinking they were lying, courage decides to dig a deeper hole. "Don't lie my brother already had his soul taken, and if you want mine-" as courage was talking sparks start to form around his body covering his forearms and his bat. "Your gonna have to pry it from my dead body. Because I have nobody left anymore… and I probably won't ever again." You say as tears start to form in your eyes once again.

Quickly charging forward, courage attempts to swing his bat at the monsters. As courage swung the bat and orb of electricity popped out of it with a resounding *crack*. As the ball just narrowly missed the monsters, they turn back to see courage holding his chest in pain.

"Calm down kid we don't want a fight!" Starlo yelled trying to get the kid to calm down.

"Shut it! Your just trying to trick me! Just like everybody else, but I won't fall for it anymore!" Courage said as hit shot off another ball of electricity which was promptly dodged.

Courage, realizing this one attack wasn't working, instinctively slammed his bat on the ground causing a shockwave of electricity to erupt from it.

Quickly dodging it, martlet was the next to speak up. "It's true! We were friends of clovers, we mean you no harm"

Quickly becoming more engaged courage spat back. "If you were his friends why did you let him do this!"

Coming up with a new attack, courage quickly jumped back before summoning a dozen of the electric orbs. Courage then proceeded to grab his bat and start spinning it around, sending the orbs flying in different directions.

Ceroba was the next to speak. "Kid we couldn't even stop him if we wanted to."

Courage then paused for a moment. "Heh… id believe it…he always was stubborn." Courage said as he reminisced.

"W-wait, stop that! Stop getting in my head!" Courage said as he held his head tightly, despite it having a helmet on it was still in pain.

Ceroba spoke up once again. "We're not trying to get in your head, we're trying to help you."

Courage, finally hearing this started to calm down for a bit, before gaining another look of anger. "Stop that! I already know your just trying to trick me!"

Jumping back, courage then proceeded to stare at the three monsters, which he had failed to even put a scratch on. "Dang it! I'm still just to weak!" Courage said as he started to pound on his helmet with his hands. "But no more! I'm not holding back anymore!" Courage said as his hands soon became coated in lighting, and large bolts of lightning started to shoot out of him.

Starlo, realizing how much danger they're in, quickly pulled out his gun and aimed it at the kid.

Martlet noticing this quickly yelled. "We are not going to shoot him!"

Starlo then looked at her and back at the kid before speaking up. "Well I don't think we'll have much of a choice if this keeps up."

Ceroba, hearing this, decided to start the plan she had been formulating over the course of the battle. "Kid calm down, it's okay"

"No, it's not ok! I just lost the only family I had left to my own stupid choices!" Courage yells back as tears start to flow down his face.

"Kid, it's okay…I understand the feeling." Ceroba said looking a little sad.

"Y-you do?……no..nonononono, stop it get out of my head!" Courage yelled once again, trying to justify his actions. Before he started failing his bat around, not even firing projectiles, just swinging.

After a couple moments of nonstop swinging, courage once again clutches his chest in pain as he doubled over onto the floor, completely exhausted.

Struggling to get up after draining himself of all his energy. Courage looks up at the three monsters, all with a looks of pity on there faces. Before deciding to speak his last words.

"Go on just kill me, I have nothing left to live for anymore." Courage said, waiting for the cold embrace of death. At least he might get to see his brother again.

But instead of pain, courage was shocked when he felt a…hug? Feeling surprised, courage didn't know how to react to the new found compassion.
Looking up he saw it was the fox monster hugging him.

"W-hy." Courage just barely managed to croak out.

"I know what its like to lose someone you love." The fox woman said while comforting him. "It's ok you can let it all out."

Then courage has gained a look of realization, he had been the bad guy here, not them. He had been the one to start the fight. And after all that they still chose to help him.
And with that realization, the flood gates had opened. Courage couldn't help but let out all the pent up emotions he had inside of him. All of the pain, the anger, the nervous and fear, and all of  the sadness from losing his brother. Courage let it all out in a pained cry of pure anguish.

After what felt like hours of crying, courage couldn't help but fall asleep in the fox woman's arms.

Chapter Text

Flowey pov

Are you kidding me? I might have miscalculated, this kid can't even fight! Ok flowey it'll be fine, all you have to do is reset and come up with a new plan.…I got it! After I reset, Ill just stall clover for a while, get his brother ahead of him, and get his brother killed right infront of his eyes! That'll surely be enough to warrant him attacking some monsters. Ok well time to reset and set my plan into action.

Load failed

…What?

Load failed

Load failed

Load failed

No, no no no no- are you kidding me!?
Did that kid dupe me? Or maybe it was because of the fact that another human died infront of him? How did he get more Determination than me?Well this could not be going any worse. Y'know what it's fine, you've worked with worse flowey, you can do this, just have to brainstorm.……ok new plan, I just have to get courage to try and fight asgore, it may take some convincing, and a little training, but when asgore goes to retrieve courage's soul I'll just nab it real quick and easy. Even with just one soul beating asgore will be a piece of cake. Especially since this kids soul is already powerful enough. Well it's time to set my new, new plan into motion. Good luck courage, your gonna need it.

No pov

After the fight, the three monsters, ceroba, Starlo, and martlet, were currently staring at the now unconscious child. All with different thoughts of confusion in their minds. With Starlo being the first to speak up.

"So, ceroba…what in tarnation happened there?"

"I think this might be clovers brother." Ceroba responded still holding the child.

"Wait clover had a brother?" Martlet spoke with shock.

Suddenly starlo gained a look of realization. "Wait a minute, the deputy talked about him one time, during our missions!"

"What did he say?" Martlet asked wanting to know more about the second human.

"Not much." Starlo replied. "All he said was that he needed to get home to his brother soon or he would freak out."

A couple moments of silence pass before martlet chips in again. "So why do you think he lashed out like that?"

Finally gazing up from the child ceroba responds. "From what it sounded like, clover was the only family he had left."

"So when he found the deputy dieing on the floor, he-" Starlo tried to continue before getting cut off by ceroba.

"He lost the reason he was still living."

After this realization all three monsters didn't know what to do. They had just found the younger sibling of a dear friend, but now said sibling might be going through the worst part of their life. and the worst part? nobody knew how to comfort  him.

"I know what I have to do." Spoke ceroba. And before the other monsters could reply, ceroba spoke once more, in a solemn tone. "And no, I'm not going to use his soul for kanako. I…made a promise to clover in case his brother ever winded up down here."

"What did he say?" Asked martlet

"He said… if his brother ever ended up down here, he asked if I would take care of him." Ceroba said while hugging the boy a little tighter.

Starlo, deciding to take the lead again, spoke up. "Let's get home, after everything that happened, were all probably pretty tired, especially the kid. And besides we can figure out all the complicated stuff later." Starlo said trying to cheer everyone up.

Ceroba, looking at Starlo before nodding, quickly stood up with the child in her arms. "Id like that."

Ceroba noticing the bat and helmet on the floor, turned over to the other monsters. "Starlo, martlet, can you two grab his stuff, I would but my hands are full."

Starlo, bending down and scooping up the two lost items, turns to ceroba before saying. "Already on it."

"Ok let's get out of here before the royal guard shows up." Ceroba said still cradling the child.

And with that they were off back towards the wild east. On the way back only a couple of words were spoken between them. Until they finally reach the steamworks.

Walking upto the laundry chute, ceroba quickly looked down at the sleeping child in her arms before turning to the others and exclaiming.

"We're going to have to take the long way back."

"Why, can't we just take the laundry chute?" Starlo said confused.

"Because one I don't want to wake up the child, and two I don't think any of us are in any condition to crawl all the way back down there." Ceroba said.

"Alright long way it is." Martlet said, walking forwards.

After walking into the steamworks, the three monsters(and one human) trek through the steamworks until they're stopped by a familiar voice.

[Halt, intruders.]

Turning around the three monsters are met with a small robot with one wheel leg, a large box like head, and two floating arms. Rolling up to them the robot stops right infront of them before exclaiming.

[Axis model 0-14 ready to- oh hello tall lady.] The robot said, cutting himself off after recognizing the familiar face.

"Oh hello Axis." Said ceroba, trying to wave at him but failing since her hands were carrying courage.

[Why have you returned to the steamworks?]

"We were just on our way back to the wild east."

[……Why do you have a human with you?]

Starlo quickly spoke up. "Oh this lil guy here is the deputy's brother."

[Do you mean the hatted human?]

"Yes, he means clover" ceroba said with a small look of sadness.

[Scanning…… affirmative. Small human shares approximately 25% of their DNA with the hatted human.]

Starlo quickly gained a confused look. "Uh, that's the normal amount,right?"

Axis quickly turned to Starlo before responding. [Correct, star man, that is the appropriate amount to share if they are half siblings.]

"Wait, so they aren't full siblings?" Martlet said.

"I guess not, although they do care for each other quite a lot." Ceroba said looking down at the child in her arms.

After a brief moment of silence, Axis spoke again. [If that is all I must return back to my daisy, I need to plan our wedding!] Axis said as he turned around and wheeled himself out of the room.

After that ordeal, the three monsters continue their trip through the steamworks. After an hour, the three monsters finally made it out of the steamworks.

"Man am I glad to be can in the wild east." Starlo said.

"Same, but I should probably return back to my post in snowdin before I get in trouble." Martlet said whilst looking a little embarrassed.

"Are you going to be able to make it back ok?" Ceroba said looking at martlet.

"Yeah, I'll be fine" martlet said as she flapped her wings and took off into the sky.

After martlet had left, starlo and ceroba continued there walk until they reached the wild east.

"Hey do you need me to walk you back? Starlo asked whilst looking at ceroba.

"I'll be fine" ceroba said, still holding the child.

"Ok well if anything happens you know who to call" Starlo said as he walked towards the feisty five's house.

"Will do." Ceroba said to him, as she continued to walk back to her estate.

As she was walking, ceroba looked down to the small human and began to think. As she looked at courage, she thought about all the choices she's made so far, about how she injected kanako with that poison, about how she betrayed and attempted to kill clover, about how she did nothing to stop him from sacrificing himself. Looking down at courage again, ceroba realized that this is one thing she did right, she'll take care of courage to try and atone for her misdeeds.

As she continued walking, she failed to realize how close she had gotten to her estate, until it was right infront of her. Walking up to the front door, ceroba is hit with a flood of memories. Shaking off this feeling, ceroba continued up to the front door.

Opening the door, ceroba is continuously bombarded by memories. Pushing through her own thoughts, ceroba walks towards her guest room and opens the door. Stepping in, ceroba notices that the place had been completely dusted. Guess that must've been the feisty five's work.

Setting courage down on the bed, ceroba stared down at the child. Just what had this kid gone through? Sure he watched his own brother die, ceroba knew that much, but what happened to him before this? While clover did go through the same thing as him, seeing as how they're brothers and all, but clover was a person of few words. He almost never talked about his past, other than his brother.

Putting her hand on courage's forehead, ceroba stared at the small child, before wiping some of his hair out of his face, only for her to be interrupted by a bright flash.

Opening her eyes, ceroba sees that they were no longer in her estate. Did this kid somehow teleport them? Where is the kid anyways? Looking around, ceroba managed to spot the kid, although he seemed to be a lot younger. That's when ceroba realized that they must be in his memories, just like how clover Accessed hers during their fight. But that was only when clover started to shatter the mask, so how were they here now?

Looking back at the kid, ceroba stared at him before somebody walked into the room. It appeared to be a woman with bright blonde hair. As she walked towards the young courage, she picked him up before exclaiming something ceroba couldn't hear. Then with another flash of light, ceroba found herself at what appeared to be the outside of a movie theater.

Looking around, ceroba spotted a young courage, a young clover, and the strange woman. Although this time there was a strange man with them as well. "Must be there father." Ceroba thought. As they walked along the road, ceroba saw the young courage tug on his mom's coat sleeve.

"Momma, can we take the long way home?" The young courage said.

"Of course sweetie." Courage's mother said as she took both clover and courage's hand and began to cross the street. Before she could process anything, a loud crash was heard, and before she new it all she saw where two bloody body's being carried away by the paramedics, and a crying courage being consoled by clover.

With another flash, ceroba found herself in what appeared to be an orphanage. Looking around, ceroba once again spotted an slightly younger courage sitting next to his brother, drawing. "It appears some time has passed since the last memory" ceroba said to herself, not like anyone else could here her. Noticing that the two kids were talking, ceroba started to eavesdrop.

"Hey courage?" Clover said.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think…that if I were to go look for those missing kids…do you think I could find them?" The young clover said, looking down at his toy revolver.

"Yeah big bro! You totally could. I bet you could find those kids before dinner."

"Thanks, courage………for everything."

"Uhhh, no problem bro." Courage said looking back confused before shrugging it off and going back to his drawing.

That's when ceroba realized something, he's blaming himself she thought. Thats when there was another bright flash, and ceroba was now standing next to a frozen courage.

As she was standing next to the kid, ceroba noticed how courage started to hyperventilate, before running around and grabbing things before shoving them in a bag, as all he uttered was, "not again, not again." And before she knew it, courage has sprinted out of the room with the bag in tow. Looking down at the note, ceroba was saddened by what she read. The note was from clover, detailing how they were going to go save the Missing kids.

With another bright flash, ceroba was brought to courage's most recent memory. It was him having his last talk with clover as he was dieing. Ceroba felt awful seeing this, not only did this kid blame himself for the death of his family, he also had to watch his brother die right infront of him. And the worst part? Ceroba could feel all of the emotions that courage was feeling, the pain, the fear, the guilt…

And with another flash, ceroba found herself still gazing down at the child, as if she never left this spot. Staring down at the child, ceroba is brought out of her thoughts when the child starts to wake up.

"Ugh, w-what happened?" Courage said as he started to open his eyes and sit up.

"You passed out after our battle." Ceroba said while staring at the child.

Courage looked back at her for a couple moments, before letting out a quick yelp of fear, and falling off of the bed onto the floor.

Quickly crawling backwards up until his back was against the wall, courage was filled with fear as he covered his head with his hands.

"It's ok, I won't hurt you, I promise." Ceroba said as she leaned down to courage's hight and extended a hand.

"Y-you won't?" Courage said, as he let down his hands and stopped covering his face

"No, I promise it's okay." Ceroba said giving her best motherly tone.

Courage stared at her for a moment, before hesitantly reaching out and taking her hand. Before ceroba pulled him to his feet. Looking up at the fox monster, courage asks a question that's been on his mind.

"W-who are you?" Courage asks, staring up at ceroba.

"My name is ceroba, I was a friend of your brother." Ceroba said staring down at the small child.

"Yeah……." Courage said, looking down obviously saddened.

After a brief pause ceroba spoke up again. "You miss him dont you?"

"Yeah…."

Ceroba stared at the child for a moment before giving him a hug. "Well, I'm sure he wouldn't want you to be sad."

Hearing this, courage started to tear up. "B-but if I was only faster-"

"Kid, look at me" ceroba said grabbing courage's shoulder and making him look at her. "It is not your fault that this happened, your just a kid, this should never have been your responsibility." Ceroba said looking him in the eye.

Hearing this, courage started to actually cry before ceroba wrapped him in a hug.

"I-i know *sniff* I just miss him so much." Courage said crying into ceroba's shoulder.

"It's ok kid, it's ok" ceroba said while hugging courage.

And after a bit of crying and hugging, ceroba finally pulled away and stared at the kid. "You ok now?"

"Yeah *sniff* thanks" courage said while wiping away his tears.

"Your welcome kid, say uh you never told me your name."

"OH, my names courage." Courage said, seemingly forgetting about his own sadness.

"Courage huh…" ceroba said.

"Yeah, I know, pretty ironic huh?" Courage said looking down.

"Whys that?" Ceroba said gaining a face of confusion.

Courage sighed before looking back up to the fox lady. "It's cause I'm a coward."

"Whys that?" Ceroba said calmly.

"I just get scared at everything, even when my brother was in danger i-i-" courage said as he started to tear up again.

Ceroba put her hand on courage's shoulder. "Courage it's not your fault, besides, you came all the way down here just to try and save your brother, that's pretty brave to me."

Courage then looked back up with a shocked expression. "Really?"

"Of course kid, you came all the way down here to find your brother, most kids your age wouldn't have the courage to do that. Speaking of age, how old are you? I'm not to well informed on humans." Ceroba said calmly.

"I'm 10 actually, and thanks ceroba, it means a lot." Courage said, looking less afraid.

"Good, now come on, I bet your pretty hungry." Ceroba said as she started leading courage out of the room.

"Hehe, you'd be right, I uh…actually haven't had anything to eat or drink since I've been here." Courage said while rubbing the back of his head with his free hand.

"Then we better get you something to eat, hmm, how does corn chowder sound?" Ceroba said as she looked back at courage.

"I've uh never tried it actually." Courage said looking slightly embarrassed.

"The I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised." Ceroba said with a small chuckle.

Walking into the dining room, ceroba told courage to wait at the kotatsu. While waiting courage started to look back to what happened before he passed out. Most of it was unclear and fuzzy but one thing stuck out to courage.

"Bring justice to the monsters, and save kanako."

Those were some of the last words clover said. And the first part was easy enough to understand, the second part though? Who the heck is kanako? Hmm…maybe ceroba knows.

As courage was thinking about the possibilities, he failed to notice ceroba walk back into the room with two bowls of food. Courage is snapped out of his thoughts when ceroba sets the food down and hands him a spoon.

"Eat up, it may be leftovers but it's still good." Ceroba said as she began to eat.

Courage stared at the food for a moment before taking a bite. As soon as courage tasted the food, he started to quickly inhale the food until it was gone, almost as if a primal instinct took over.

Looking up, courage is met by a shocked expression from ceroba. Quickly wiping off his face, courage looked down embarrassed.

"S-sorry, I haven't eaten in a while and it tasted really good."

"It's fine, I'm glad you liked it." Ceroba said with a small chuckle.

After a brief moment of silence, courage looked up to ask his next question.

"Hey ceroba?"

"Yes courage?"

"Do you know who kanako is?"

After courage uttered these words, ceroba gained a look of dread, as she set down her spoon and looked away.

"Did…did I say something wrong?" Courage said, looking concerned.

"No it's just……how do you know that name?" Ceroba said looking dead serious.

"W-well, clover said he wanted me to save her. Did you know her?" Courage said, looking confused.

"She…was my daughter." Ceroba said, looking saddened.

"Oh…what happened? If you don't mind me asking." Courage said. sure, he may be a coward, but he always tried to listen to someone in need.

"She…fell down, so in desperation I sent to the lab in hot land. But they haven't given me any word to her condition." Ceroba said with a saddened look.

"Oh…that's…horrible. They should at least give you status updates or something." Courage said looking confused.

"I know kid, I've been saying the same thing. But they haven't been responding to my letters."

"Well…we should go bust in and save her-"

"Absolutely not." Ceroba said, shooting down his idea.

Courage was left with a face of confusion. "Why? Surely you want to as well."

"Of course I do kid." Ceroba retorted. "But your not going."

"What why?!" Courage said, looking betrayed.

"Because just like how you promised clover to save kanako, I promised them to keep you safe. So there is no way I'm going to have you involved in a lab heist." Ceroba said, calmly but with a hint of aggression.

"I..…ok, I won't go." Courage said looking defeated.

"You promise, courage?" Ceroba said looking at the child.

"I........I promise." Courage said.

Ok, good, now let's get you to bed, it's getting pretty late." Ceroba said as she took courage's hand, and led them to the guest room.

Unbeknownst to ceroba, courage had been crossing his fingers when he promised. He was gonna save kanako, no matter what.

Chapter Text

Waking up in the middle of the night, courage started to think if what he was doing was the best course of action. Currently, he was planning on sneaking out to the lab in hot land. First things first, his stuff. Looking around, courage managed to find his bag, bat, and helmet, all laying next to his bed in a neet pile. Good, that'll make this easier. Putting on his gear, courage began to wonder if he was doing the right thing, does he follows ceroba's orders and stay here like he was told? Or does he honor clovers last wish and save kanako... As much as he respected ceroba, he needed to fulfill his brothers last request, it's the least he could do.

Opening the door to his room, courage is glad the doors and floorboards in this place aren't comically squeaky. Walking into the hall, courage does a quick look back and forth, before quickly making his way to the front door. Walking out, courage is met by the dead of night, how did they have a day and night cycle underground? Courage had no idea, but thats not what he should be focusing on.

As courage started to walk down the road, he started to think about the possible outcomes of his little plan, sure it could go off without a hitch and he saves kanako, but what happens if he fails?….he'd rather not think about that.

While lost in thought, courage failed to notice he had finally made it back to the wild east. The walk through the town was eerily quiet. Makes sense, it was pretty late at night. Walking through the town, courage finally made it back to the vault to the steamworks. The only way to get to hot land (at least to courage's knowledge) was through the steam works. Even if it was gross and creepy.

Walking back up to the door, courage was relieved to find it was still open. At least he won't have to worry about the door opening and waking somebody up.

Walking into the said steamworks, courage noticed that nothing had changed since he was here last. Was this place abandoned or something? Probably, it was pretty worse for wear. As courage continued to walk down the damp, dark hallways of the steamworks, he started to reevaluate his plan. He didn't even know where the lab in Hotland was! All he knew was that #1 there was a lab, and #2 it was SOMEWHERE in Hotland. That's like saying someones house is somewhere in town! It barely helps!

Sighing to himself, courage shook off the feelings of self doubt and dread, he wouldn't try to back out of his problems or run away. He would continue until he saved kanako! For clover.

As he was lost in thought, courage failed to realize he had finally made it to the laundry chute. As much as he hated it, this was the one straight path from here to Hotland, he didn't even know if the other path lead anywhere.  Staring down the laundry chute, courage steeled his nerves, before crawling back in and up to Hotland.

Finally making it out of the laundry chute, courage let out a large gasp before toppling over onto the hot ground.

Crawling to his feet, courage thought about it for a moment before finally coming up with an idea, he'll just ask someone! Most monsters around here seemed nice anyways.

Walking forward, clover still saw no monsters out and about, makes sense, it was really late at night, that really isn't helping though. Walking forward, courage decides to walk into underground apartments to try and find anybody. As he looked, courage finally spotted somebody! It appeared to be a monster with a blue hand for a head, sitting at what looked like an information kiosk.

Walking up to said monster, courage realized that they seemed to be very tired, probably pulling the night shift.

"Um, hello?" Courage said at the almost asleep monster.

"Huh wha-?" The monster said, getting startled awake.

"Do you know how I can get to the lab?" Courage asked, trying to lean up to talk to the monsters since he was just barely taller than the desk.

"The lab? Kid, why do you want to go to the lab this late at night?" The blue hand monster asked, if they had a face they'd be giving courage a confused look.

"Oh uh, it's an emergency." Courage said. truth be told, it was kind of an emergency, to him at least.

"*Sigh*, fine kid, to get to the lab you have to go forward from the apartments until you reach the split path, then just continue left. But kid I don't think they're gonna help you, they haven't answered the door for anybody in a while." The blue hand monster said, with a hint of tiredness in their voice.

"Thank you mister." Courage said as he ran out of the room, hoping he didn't raise suspicion.

Walking out of the apartments, courage is once again hit by the extreme heat of hot land, guess that's where it got the name from, hehe.… Courage then realized how overused that joke must be and cringes.

Taking the advice of the hand monster, courage continued to walk down the road until he reached the split path. Walking left, courage realized that he never actually went this way before. Walking down the road further, courage finally made it large building that just screamed lab. Walking up to the front door, courage sees a note taped to the front.

"The royal scientist will be out for the next couple of days to have a meeting with the king. If you need anything just leave a note."

This was perfect, the royal scientist was gone for the couple of days? This was the perfect moment to sneak in. That would be, if they didn't lock the door.

Staring at the door for a moment, courage ponders what he could possibly do to get it open. That's when he remembered what happened during his fight with ceroba and the other two monsters. He could create electricity, courage wondered how this could possibly have slipped his mind. I mean it's not everyday that someone could just control and element like they're a bender or something.

Looking at the door and down to his hands, courage tried to recreate the feeling of the lightning. And to his surprise, it works without a hitch. Lightning started crackling at his fingertips and arching off of him. Looking back up at the door, courage thought for a moment, it appeared to be electrical so……maybe he could short circuit it?

Touching the door, courage is surprised when electricity sparks out of it for a bit before it shoots open. Looking inside courage is terrified by the pitch black inside of the lab. There wasn't any fake moon light like in the wild east, there wasn't any dim lights like in the steamworks, and the natural light of the magma outside failed to reach in here. It was complete and utter darkness.

Staring into the darkness, courage is filled with nothing but fear.

"No, I can't be scared, I have to do this, for clover." Courage said as he created some large sparks on his arm to generate light.

Walking in courage is disheartened when he finds…nothing. No people, no lab equipment, nothing. Was he in the wrong place? Looking around the only thing courage noticed was a bathroom. Maybe he'll go in there to get a drink of water out of the sink. It is still pretty hot outside.

Walking into the supposed bathroom, courage is shocked when he isn't greeted by a sink and toilet, but rather and elevator.

"Why would you go out of your way to disguise and elevator as a bathroom?" Courage said to himself, trying to calm his nerves.

Walking forward, courage looked at the elevator buttons, before pushing the only one that he could (that being B1). Courage is then suddenly startled when the elevator started moving.

After a while of waiting, the elevator doors open in front of courage to reveal a dark, barely lit hallway. At least it's better than complete darkness.

Walking into the darkness, courage almost immediately gets scared. This place just had a feeling of…dread. Almost as if the only thing in here was sadness it self. But courage shook off the uneasy feeling and continued forward. After all how could he call himself a good brother if he didn't fulfill his brothers dieing wish.

Walking forward into the building, courage is met by an complete lack of noise, other than his own footsteps.

Somehow, after all of the things he's gone through in the underground, this is still the most scared he's ever been. Walking forward, courage could still only hear his footsteps…until he starts to hear a pair trying to mimic his own.

Quickly turning around in fear, courage is met with…nothing. There was absolutely nothing out of place. Turning back around, courage continues to walk until he eventually spotted a sign on the wall with a list of patients. Quickly running to it courage starts to read the list. It appears most of the monsters were in the main wing, but there also appeared to be a side wing, dedicated to "boss monsters", with only a handful of patients, one of which being kanako!

"Lucky me I guess." courage said to himself.

Walking into the side wing, courage is met with a long hallway with doors lining up and down it. Looking at the name tags, courage is easily able to find kanako's room, seeing as how most of the others were empty.

Walking up to the door, courage is terrified of what he may see on the otherside, but he can't give up, he has to do this. Hesitantly opening the door courage is met with….an empty room. There was nothing in it, just some old cheap furniture. Dread started to fill inside courage at the thought of what this might mean, did she.…die? Was he too late once again?

With a sigh, courage finally gave up and began to turn around to go home. But when he turned around, he was met with a large, goopy, white figure  with some fox like features, ominously standing behind him.

Jumping back out of fear, courage is shocked when the figure also flinches out of fear. Was…was it scared of him? Quickly deciding to test that theory, courage decided to speak up.

"Um, hello, who are you?" Courage said with an obvious tone of fear in his voice.

"…K…ana…ko." The large figure said.

Courage let out a small gasp, this was the person that he was supposed to save? Examining the figure closer, courage started to notice the fox ears and tail and the same bells that ceroba had on her outfit. Yup, this was her.

"O-oh, hello kanako. I'm uh actually here to save you, believe it or not." Courage said with the bravest tone he could muster.

The figure just remained oddly quiet, but there was one thing courage noticed. The figure had the same look he used to, the look of loneliness, the look of confusion, the look of fear...

Noticing this, courage loses all the previous fear he had in his body, which is instead replaced with concern.

"I know that look." Courage stared as the figure continued to just stare.

"The look of fear, the look of confusion, the look of loneliness." Courage continued.

"I used to feel all of those things to, infact I still do a lot, but instead of going through it alone.…" Courage said as he opened up his arms.

"You wanna at least have someone to go through it with you?" Courage said with his most caring tone.

The figure slowly started to walk forward as courage held his hands out. If he wasn't so concerned for the monster he would be absolutely terrified.

The monster eventually shambled over to courage as he shut his eyes, waiting for what's to come. And that's when he felt it. The large monster had accepted the hug and wrapped herself around him. Courage continued to hug kanako until he felt a wetness on his shoulder. Was she crying?

"What's wrong?" Courage said in his most sincere and caring tone.

"Sc…ared..." Kanako answered him.

In response, courage only hugged back tighter. He didn't know why he already cared so much for a monster her just met, maybe it was the fact that he saw a younger version of himself in her. The perpetual fear, the agonizing loneliness. Courage felt that she needed someone like clover right now. Someone who could help calm her down and cheer her up, but clover wasn't here anymore, so courage will have to take his place.

"It's ok, I promise I'll get you out of here and back home to your family." Courage said, trying to replicate the way clover calmed him down when he was young.

"Thank…you." Kanako said, as she continued hugging him.

The moment was nice, sure courage was hugging her to help calm her down but…he felt as if he also needed a hug right now.

After a couple more moments of hugging, courage finally pulled away from the hug.

"Cmon, let's get you out of here, your mom misses you." Courage said whilst extending his hand.

Wordlessly, kanako took his hand with her much larger goopy one. And with that they started walking back to the elevator back to the main floor.

As they were walking, something felt off….like they were being watched. Suddenly a shrill roar emanated from behind them. Turning around, courage saw another large goopy monster, although this one looked like a giant dog with multiple legs. Courage quickly started to run away, only to look.back and see that kanako was having a hard time keeping up in her goopy state. Soon the large dog amalgamation started to catch up to kanako. Courage was left with a choice, run for his life, or go back for his new friend?

Every bone in courage's body was telling him to run and that kanako could take care of herself but……something inside him wouldn't let him do that. So with all the bravery he could muster, courage took out his bat before running in between the two monsters.

"HEY, DOG FACE! IF YOU WANT TO HURT MY FRIEND YOUR GONNA HAVE TO GO THROUGH ME!" courage yelled at the top of his lungs, at a volume not even he thought he could shout. As sparks start to crackle off of his body with both of his hands outstretched.

As soon as courage was done yelling, the large dog monster shrunk down into itself before running away down a separate hallway.

Breathing heavily, courage shakily lowers his hands as he looks back at kanako wide eyed.

"I *huff* cannot believe *puff* that worked." Courage said as he started trembling, the fear finally setting in. Currently, courage was trying to come to terms with what just happened. Why did he do that? Why did it work?  How is he not dead?!

Kanako saw her savior starting to freak out, so she did the one thing she could think of, she wrapped him another hug.

Courage was lost in thought, did he really just risk his life for someone he just met? As he was thinking, courage was brought out of his thoughts by the feeling of kanako's sludge-like body wrapping around him.

"Thank…you…for…saving me" kanako slowly said.

"It's no problem, I came all the way here to save you anyways." Courage said as he turned around the face the amalgamate kanako.

Staring at the large goopy monster, courage is shocked when he is blinded by a bright light, looking back courage sees a small upside down heart with a blue crack down the middle, floating in front of kanako.

"Whoa.….is that…your soul?" Courage asks while staring at the heart shaped object.

Kanako simply nodded, as courage continued to stare at her soul. The. Suddenly without him realizing, courage's own soul started floating infront of him. A slightly larger heart, glimmering a bright and vibrant orange.

Staring at the two souls, courage instinctively stretches his hand out and extends his soul to kanako's. And the second they touch, everything goes black.

Waking up, courage realizes a couple of things. 1 he appears to be floating in a pitch black void, 2 he appears to be made of a bright orange energy, with none of his gear.

Looking around the void, all courage can see is a small light in the distance. Traveling towards the light, courage is shocked to find kanako, but something was wrong, she looked completely normal (or at least what courage could assume is normal). But something else was wrong, kanako was surrounded by what appeared to be blue strings tying her up.

Floating over, courage immediately tried to get this kanako's attention.

"Hey are uh…you ok?" Courage said while waving his hand infront of her face.

But there was no response, kanako seemed to just stare off into space. So courage began to scan over the situation some more. Courage noticed that the strings tied around kanako were the same color as the crack down her soul. Something about them was wrong, so courage did the one thing he could think of.

Courage started to tug at the strings. but the second he pulled on the first one, he was blinded once again by a bright light and when he looked back, courage couldn't believe his eyes.

Firstly, they were back in the real world, and secondly, kanako looked normal! Like nothing had ever happened. And infront of her was her soul, but it looked different, the harsh blue crack that was once splitting her soul was now filled with soft orange bands keeping it together. Had…had he done this? Did he heal her soul? Maybe, but that's not what he was worried about right now.

After a moment, both of their souls had returned to their rightful owners. And after that, courage shakily got to his feet and walked over to the now healed kanako. Walking over to her, courage started to try and wake her up by shaking her.

"Hey, hey! Wake up, please." Courage said in a tired tone. He needed her to wake up so they could start getting back before the others woke up.

"…Hmm, what?" Kanako said as she started to wake up.

"Hey, are you ok?" Courage said.

"C-courage?" Kanako said, staring at him wide eyed.

"That's my name, don't wear it out hehe, ow…" courage said with a small pain in his ribs from the laughing. Apparently, healing someone else's soul makes you very sore.

There was a brief moment of silence, before kanako suddenly jump tackled courage and started crying into his chest.

"Whoa, whoa, what's wrong?" Courage said while trying to calm her down.

"I was so s-scared you weren't real, and that that was all just a dream." Kanako said as she continued to cry.

"Well I can assure you that I'm real and that your better now." Courage said while he broke away and stood up. "Now let's hurry up and get back home. I kinda snuck out to be here." Courage said whilst rubbing his arm.

Kanako let out a soft chuckle. "Yeah, let's get home. I'm kind of tired anyways." Kanako said as she grabbed courage's hand and started to walk back towards the elevator.

As they walked, courage couldn't help but wonder what happened back there. Why did kanako's soul have the same color as his when he touched it? Why did it have a crack in it? Pushing all the thoughts to the back of his mind, courage decided to not ask, he doesn't want to try and question kanako after she just got healed. As he was thinking, he failed to hear kanako trying to get his attention.

"Courage!" Kanako semi shouted at courage.

"Huh? Oh my bad I was lost in thought." Courage said while looking away embarrassed.

"I was asking why your here?" Kanako asked

"What do you mean?" Courage replied, obviously confused.

"Like, why did you come here to save me?" Kanako said while turning to look at courage.

"Oh, it's kinda funny actually, it was my brother's wish to come and save you, so I came here on a hunch to come and bust you out." Courage replied.

"Wow, your brother sounds great, I can't wait to meet him!" Kanako said, oblivious to clovers fate.

"That's…the bad news, clover……he passed away yesterday." Courage said, looking downtrodden.

Suddenly kanako came to a halt, with courage bumping into her.

"Hey why'd we stop-" courage tried to ask before he was cut off by kanako wrapping him in another hug.

"I'm so sorry that happened, if there's anything you need, just ask." Kanako said while hugging courage.

Courage didn't know what to say. The only other person who cares for him like this was clover, but even then, clover barely spoke. Courage was so caught up in his own emotions he failed to notice tears pricking up in his eyes. And before he knew it he had started crying while uttering small "thank you"s. After a couple minutes of crying, courage finally managed to pull himself together and break away from the hug.

"Thanks" courage said, whilst wiping away the last of his tears.

"No problem, you did the same for me, so I guess we're even now!" Kanako said in her usual cheerful tone.

"Yeah I guess we are." Courage said.

"Now let's get out of here, this place always gives me the chills." Kanako said, as she grabbed courage's hand once again and started to lead him back to the elevator.

"I bet, let's get home" courage said as he followed behind her.

Chapter Text

Standing in the elevator, courage stared at the fox girl infront of him. After a moment of staring, courage realized something. How was he going to explain this when he got back?...he didnt think that far ahead, the only plan he really had was just to maybe get some more info, he didnt plan to actually come back with kanako.

Groaning, courage leans back against the wall with his hands against his head, trying to formulate a new plan of action. During this he has once again caught the attention of the fox monster beside him.

"Courage, are you ok?" Kanako asked worriedly.

"Hmm, oh uh yeah?" Courage asked, getting snapped out of his thoughts.

"I asked if you were ok. You were groaning and holding your head." Kanako says.

"Yeah, it's just that well...I kinda......snuck out in the middle of the night to be here, so I'm scared of what's gonna happen when I get back." Courage said while internally panicking.

"Snuck out, why?" Kanako said, giving courage a confused look.

"Well, your mom didn't want me to go and bust into a lab. She apparently promised my brother to keep me safe." Courage said whilst looking down.

"Ah...well, it can't be to bad, I mean if you get back early enough maybe they won't notice you've been gone?" Kanako said while looking at courage.

"Well I would do that but....I'm kinda also bringing you back so they're probably gonna figure it out." Courage said while looking dejected.

"Oh, I forgot about that." Kanako said while looking embarrassed.

"I just hope that ceroba doesn't start freaking out about me." Courage said.

"Hey, it'll probably be fine." Kanako said as she put a hand on courage's shoulder.

Courage paused for a moment before responding. "Thanks kanako."

After that little moment, the two small children were interrupted by a small *ding*, causing the elevator doors to slide open and reveal pitch blackness.

Courage, taking the lead, looked back at kanako before saying. "Hey you might wanna stick by me till we're outside." Courage said as he extended a hand.

Feeling kanako take his hand, courage mustered a large sum of electricity into his other hand, essentially making it glow.

"Whoa, I didn't know humans could use magic!" Kanako mused while staring at his hand.

"What, no. This isn't magic...probably." Courage said, leading them forward through the dark lab.

"What else could it be then?" Kanako questioned,

"It's probably um......I'll get back to you on that." Courage said while looking away, clearly embarrassed.

As they were walking through the dark lab, courage had a lot on his mind, how was he able to heal kanako, why can he use lightning powers? Maybe he'll just ask someone later. God, the underground was confusing.

Looking around the lab, courage is horrified to look over at the clock to see the time. When he had left it was midnight, now it was 8 in the fricking morning! How long was he unconscious for?

Kanako, seeing courage start to clam up, turned to her new friend. "Hey uh, are you ok? You've just been staring off into the distance."

Courage could only look down in shame. "I'm gonna be in so much trouble when I get back." Courage said with a hint of shame in his voice.

"It'll be fine." Kanako said as she dragged courage forward. "I mean, it's not like you failed, you actually saved me! So maybe they won't mind?" Kanako said.

"*Sigh* hopefully." Courage said as he walked along with kanako.

Making their way outside, courage is once again stunned by the awful heat of Hotland, almost instantly starting to get a small headache. Kanako, noticing courage's reaction to the heat, quickly turned back to her new friend with a face of worry.

"Uh, courage, are you sure your ok?" Kanako asked in a concerned tone.

"Yeah, just the heats getting to me." Courage said as he removed his helmet to wipe the sweat off his brow.

Kanako simply stared at courage for a moment, causing the latter to become embarrassed, until kanako finally spoke up again.

"Hey courage?" Kanako said as she leaned over to him.

"Yeah?" Courage said, looking back at her inquisitivly.

"Can I wear your helmet?" Kanako said while looking at him.

"Can I ask why?" Courage said obviously confused but a little embarrassed.

"It just looks comfy." Kanako said while giving a small smile.

"Well, I don't really like taking it off infront of people." Courage said, obviously trying to change the subject.

"Welp, you forced me to do this." Kanako said, before she turned to look at courage, and proceeded to give him puppy dog eyes. "Please?" Kanako said in a small voice.

Courage was immediately caught off guard. Some how kanako had figured out his one weakness.

After a moment of hesitation, courage finally spoke up again. "F-fine. Just promise you'll give it back?"

"I promise." Kanako said as she looked at courage again.

Seeing this, courage finally stopped for a moment, before he slowly started to take off his helmet, revealing a head of thick, unkempt hair.

Courage then proceeded to give kanako the helmet, which she then proceeded to put on.

"Wow, now I know why you wear this. It's so comfy." Kanako said as she shifted the helmet on her head.

"Yeah, you can uh...wear till we get back if you'd like?" Courage said, while looking away from kanako. He may have saved her from the lab, but he still wasn't used to talking to girls.

"Really?" Kanako said as her eyes lit up with excitement.

"Yeah, it's pretty hot for me to wear it anyways." Courage said. And while that wasn't a lie, courage just did it because it seemed to make her happy.

But that brought a new thought to courage, why did he care so much about what she felt? Why does he care so much for a person he just met? These thoughts are confusing, he should probably ask ceroba later.

Courage is snapped out of his thoughts by kanako giving him a quick hug. "Thanks courage! Now come on, let's get back home, I'm starving!" Kanako said as she proceeded to start running ahead.

Courage, noticing he's being left behind, start to panic and run forward. "H-hey, wait up!"

And so their walk continued. It was a long boring walk, filled with idle conversation to pass the time. And during this walk, courage learned a couple things about his new friend. Like how kanako liked to draw, courage was never really good at it and when he admitted this kanako instantly thought that she should be the one to teach him.

As they were almost back to the wild east, courage started to think about what would happen when he got back. Would the others be mad at him? Would they yell at him for disobeying? He hoped not, he hated getting yelled at. Courage just hoped that ceroba wouldn't be worried.

Elsewhere.

Ceroba, starlo, and martlet were currently sitting down in cerobas living room. They were currently discussing about their new guests from last night.

"So your telling me he blaming himself for what happened to clover?" Starlo asked with a face of worry.

"I'm not to sure, but I'd assume so." Ceroba said as she held a cup of coffee in her hands.

"That's awful, it obviously wasn't their fault." Martlet said.

"That's what I told them, I just hope they listened." Ceroba said with a face of worry.

"Speaking of the lil guy, where is he? Id assume he'd be up by now." Starlo said.

"Well, he had a very rough day yesterday, so I let him sleep in. You wanna go and wake him up for us? Then we can introduce you and martlet to him." Ceroba explained

"Sure, I'll be right back" starlo said as he got up from the table and walked into the other room.

After a brief moment of silence Starlo walked back into the room with an obvious face of worry.

"Hey ceroba, is it normal for humans to replace themselves with an assortment of pillows vaguely resembling their shape?" Starlo asked.

"No...why?" Ceroba asked with a face of suspicion.

"Then I think the human might've snuck out." Starlo said even more worried.

Ceroba instantly gained a face of shock, before shooting up and heading for the door. "Crap, we have to move, now!

"Whoa, what's wrong ceroba?" Martlet asked as she too quickly stood up and headed for the door."

"I think Courage might be headed for the lab." Ceroba said with an obvious look of worry.

"The lab? But why would the human go there of all places?" Starlo said.

"I...told him about kanako. Apparently, one of clovers final requests was to help kanako, But I told him that he couldn't go." Ceroba said as she finally reached her front door. But before she could open it, the door slid open.

Courage's pov

Courage and kanako had finally made it back to the house. As they started to walk up the steps, courage suddenly stops, causing kanako to look at him strangely.

"Are you coming?" Kanako asked while staring at courage.

"...Maybe I shouldn't." Courage said while looking ashamed.

"What, why?" Kanako said with a look of shock.

"Well...ceroba's probably mad at me since I snuck out. What if they don't want to see me again?" Courage said as a look of worry slowly spread across their face.

"Mom wouldn't act like that. She's probably worried sick! Now c'mon." Kanako said as she grabbed courage's hand and dragged him up to the door.

As soon as she opened the door, kanako was met by a worried looking ceroba, who upon seeing her, instantly gained a look of shock.

"K-kanako?" Ceroba said, almost choking over her own words.

"Hey...mom." Kanako said as she started to tear up as well.

After a brief moment of silence, the two foxes proceeded to hug whilst ceroba proceeded to apologize over and over for something.

After their brief reunion, ceroba finally let go of her daughter and started asking her questions.

"H-how are you here?" Ceroba asked, her eyes full of tears.

"Courage helped me!" Kanako said joyfully.

"Courage....where is he?" Ceroba asked with a worried expression.

"Oh he's right here!" Kanako said as she proceeded to grab courage, who had been standing around the wall, and drag him infront of the doorway.

"Oh uh....hi." courage said, obviously nervous of the reaction.

Courage stood there as everyone went silent, where he wished the earth would open up and swallow him while so he wouldn't have to be here anymore.

After a brief moment of silence, ceroba started to reach down to courage. Courage, thinking the worst, flinched away, only to feel the large fox monster tightly hugging him.

"Why would you think that going to the lab by yourself was a good idea?! I was so worried." Ceroba said as she continued to tightly hug courage.

"I-i...I'm sorry." Courage said as he started to break down. He always hated upsetting people. And he has a bad trait about crying when over people started to cry.

"*Sigh* it's ok kid, just...never do that again." Ceroba said sternly.

"Are……are you mad at me?" Courage said whilst looking away ashamed.

"Yes, I was a little mad, but I was also very worried." Ceroba said while maintaining the hug.

"So are you going to punish me?" Courage said with a hint of fear.

"What do you mean courage?" Ceroba said as she pulled away to finally look at the boy.

"Like y'know……punish me, thats what happens when you misbehave, right?" Courage said with a look of confusion.

"Courage, be truthful with me. How did they punish you?" Ceroba said sternly.

"They…they um….…hit me." Courage said with obvious hesitation, like he knew what he was saying was wrong.

"Oh…courage, that's awful." Ceroba said as she once again wrapped courage in a hug.

Courage on the other hand was very confused. Why hadn't she hit him? He was obviously in the wrong, so why wasn't he being punished? Courage was so caught up in his emotions that he failed to notice that he started to cry.

"B-but, I messed up! W-why aren't you punishing me?" Courage said as he just limply stood in cerobas grip.

"Because hitting children is wrong, courage. And I would never do that too you." Ceroba said as she desperately tried to comfort the child.

Courage had finally broken, why was she being so nice? Now courage didn't know what to think, he didn't know how to feel about…anything now. He originally was going to ask how to leave the underground, but……does he really wanna leave this? These…monsters, there so much nicer than humans. Maybe…maybe he'll stay.

After a moment of hugging and crying, ceroba finally pulled away from the hug as she stared back at kanako.

"So uh, kanako do you mind taking courage to your room? Us adults need to have a conversation." Ceroba said.

"Sure! Cmon courage, I'll show you my room." Kanako said as she once again grabbed courage's hand and dragged him away.

As kanako dragged courage up to her room, ceroba looked back at the two other monsters

"That was…something." Martlet said with a face of confusion.

"Well uh…guess we won't have to worry now, will we?" Starlo said with his usual accent.

"I guess not……I'm going have to ask courage so many questions later." Ceroba said with an exasperated sigh.

*With courage and kanako*

"So courage, what're you drawing?"

Courage and kanako were currently upstairs in the latter's room. Currently, they were on the floor drawing.

"O-oh nothing much." Courage said as he continued to color.

Kanako then proceeded to lean over to see courage's drawing, only to see a drawing of a white house with 4 people out front, one of which being a doodle version of courage.

"Oh courage, who's that?" Kanako asked while tilting her head to the side.

"W-well, this was my family, there's mom, and dad, and….clover." courage said, as he looked down saddened at the remembrance of his brother.

As courage was lost in his own thoughts, kanako reached out and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Wanna talk about it?" Kanako asked with a face of concern.

"…Nah, thanks for asking though." Courage said, still having a hint of sadness in his voice, but now it was drowned out with happiness.

"So…how was life back up on the surface?" Kanako asked as she continued to draw.

"It was…well it was kinda boring. I didn't really have many friends so my days just consisted of me playing some baseball in my little league and going home." Courage said as he too went back to drawing.

"Oh…well your here now, and now we can be friends!" Kanako said with her usual enthusiasm.

"W-wait, were friends?" Courage asked with genuine shock in his voice.  Why would someone as cool as kanako wanna be friends with him?

"Of course! You saved me after all." Kanako said.

Oh yeah, he did do that, didn't he?

After a brief moment, courage gave a small smile as he looked at his new friend.

"Thanks kanako."

As they continued to color, the silence was suddenly shattered by ceroba appearing in the doorway.

"Hey Courage, do you mind if I talk to you out here real quick?" Ceroba said in a calm tone.

Hearing this courage immediately got up and walked towards the voice, only to find ceroba with two other people

Courage was caught off guard, sure he was trying to be braver, now there were two strangers in the room with him. What made it worse is that courage is pretty sure these strangers were the same ones he tried to fight yesterday. So now he has to deal with two new potentially angry people.

"So uh…w-what do you need?" Courage asked trying to keep the brave facade.

"Well, we wanted to introduce ourselves, I'm martlet. I am er…was a friend of your brothers." Martlet said.

"And I'm sheriff north star, pleasure to make your acquaintance." The cowboy said as he extended his hand.

But before courage could take his hand, ceroba nudged Northstar in the shoulder.

"Give him your actual name." Ceroba said Sternly.

"Fine… names Starlo, kid. Starlo said as he once again extended his hand for a handshake.

"My names courage, nice to meet you both." Courage said as he finally took starlo's hand and gave it a firm shake.

"Now courage, the real reason we needed you is because we're going to ask you some questions. Is that ok?" Ceroba said while putting her hand on his shoulder.

"Sure." Courage said with a hint of fear still in his voice.

"Ok first question…what happened?" Ceroba said sternly.

"W-what do you mean?" Courage asked a little confused.

"What I mean is….what happened last night? All we know is that you disappeared and some how made it back with kanako." Ceroba asked with a more calming tone.

"Honestly…I don't really know my self. I got lucky because the scientist were out so I snuck in and found kanako but…I only remember vague stuff. Most of it is pretty blurry." Courage said, his voice still filled with confusion.

"Hmm, well I guess it can't be helped. Now why don't you go get kanako for us, foods almost ready and I'm sure your both starving." Ceroba said as she gave courage a quick pat on the head.

"Ok." Was all courage said before turning around and walking back up the stairs.

"…So… you think that kanako's really…ok?" Starlo said as he looked to ceroba.

"She seems ok, but the weirdest thing is that it feels like she never even fell at all." Ceroba said with a hint of confusion.

"Well, lets just hope it stays that way." Martlet said with a hopeful tone.

"Yeah, let's do that." Ceroba said as she walked to the kitchen.